We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Daring to think big “Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.”
“Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms
Will show your mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.”
Excerpts from Drake’s prayer, 1577, written in Portsmouth as he began his circumnavigation of the globe. The quotation is given by John C. Hulsman, in “Brexit: Directions for Britain Outside the EU,” Institute of Economic Affairs, page 146. (The monograph was published shortly before the 23 June Referendum.) Here, by the way, is an item about Sir Francis Drake.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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So what is the correct samizdatista take on Drake? The link supplied describes him as a pirate, among other things. Or were these acts of war and somehow ok?
Drake, what a guy! (yes, he did some questionable things, but…). His native town of Tavistock in Devon is still a handsome place, seemingly incongruous as you come down from the bleak moors, and his statute still stands there.
I have a peculiar fondness for the ‘King In The Mountain’ legend about Drake.
“Take my drum to England, hang it by the shore,
strike it when your powder’s running low.
If the Dons [ed: Spanish] sight Devon,
I’ll quit the port of Heaven,
and drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago.”
He’s like a modern-day King Arthur, for certain values of “modern” at least. According to legend his drum was heard to play itself (or perhaps he came back as a ghost) at the capture of Napoleon, at the surrender of the German fleet in WW1, and at the Dunkirk evacuation in WW2.
Lovely quotation. 🙂
Just a shame that the Royal Museums Greenwich article says so little. No mention at all of Drake’s fairly well documented (but then secret) voyage as far north as Alaska, looking for a North West passage to Britain. Or his trip to La Rochelle to deposit part of the treasure before the official return to Britain at the end of his circumnavigation. Presumably to pay back his (Huguenot?) financiers.
Meh, I’ll stick with The Serenity Prayer.
Covers MUCH more in all things great and small.
Wh00Ps: He stole from the King of Spain, weakening that Evil Empire.
And the Fireships used against the Armada, some say that they worked so well because the Spanish feared that they were Hellburners, as used at the Siege of Antwerp in 1584.
That’s enough for me.
A great quote. It’s going into my archives. Thanks.
Re what is the correct samizdatista take on Drake?
Was Drake a libertarian? Not when it came to business in Scotland and Ireland.
Given the known Drake family interest in mining in Ireland, the amphibious strike force by John Norreys and Francis Drake could be seen as “business by other means”, driving the Scots from Ulster, so that the English could get control of the valuable mining assets, especially the gold.
Maybe he’s the nearest we’ve got to a British Luke Skywalker (and the rebel force) battling the Evil Empire, and blowing up their Death Star?
Until Thomas Cochrane (the real-life ‘Master and Commander’) did the sequel in 1809, using fireships against the French fleet at Rochefort.
Cochrane has a much better libertarian track record in that respect.
But one man’s rebel/pirate is another man’s Great Briton.
Rudolph,
Libertarianism forbids wanton cruelty to Scots? Why was I not told. I’m off to become a socialist immediately… 😉
A wonderful quote that contrasts quite nicely with Perry Metzger’s remark on socialist destruction of the human will or, as Nietzsche put it, making men smaller and more governable is desired as “progress.”
The link to the Royal Museums Greenwich (what a crappy name) site on Drake is to a disgraceful PC blathering about Drake the man, it says nothing of the perils men faced when taking his passage.
Two nice quotes! The posted and the Metzger quote too. Thanks.
I really like how the Drake quote stands against the notional meaning behind so-called ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”.
There is a plaque on the sea wall of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia which refers to the time the “pirate” Francis Drake breached said wall and destroyed part of the city.
One man’s freedom fighter being another’s terrorist and all that.
See also the many parts of South America where Thomas Cochrane is honoured as a libertarian and a liberator. Very much in the mold of Drake, plundering the Spanish etc. Except Drake got home with the goodies and Cochrane got accused of fraud etc.
Indeed.